


The Sun Always Rises

by earlywritings (welcometolotr)



Category: YuYu Hakusho
Genre: Character Death, Demons, Gen, M/M, Makai - Freeform, Mpreg, Ningenkai
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-26
Updated: 2013-05-26
Packaged: 2017-12-13 00:30:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/817831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/welcometolotr/pseuds/earlywritings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From conversations with Hiei to odd encounters with Yomi, one fox's life is a series of weird and interesting events. The days will go on, though, because the sun always rises again. </p><p>A series of mostly unconnected oneshots, Kurama-centric.</p><p>Originally written in 2010-11, it stands the chance of being updated in the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. On Death

_Jade._

_Silvery metal._

_A thin chain._

_Delicate tools._

_All inside a secret pocket for a secret wish._

_-x-  
_

"Hiei? I didn't think you were going to drop by tonight. What prompted this?" Kurama looked up from his pruning.

"Come, fox." He beckoned out the window, his silhouette cast sharply on the wall by the stark moonlight.

An eyebrow raised, the redhead stood up and followed the hiyoukai out the window. "Where are we going? Is there a mission?"

"Out. No."

The taller demon sighed, pushing off the sill to follow his friend in silence.

It took only ten minutes to arrive at the forest a few kilometers away, though he was at a loss as to why the diminutive youkai had chosen it. It had originally been a beautiful sea of trees, but after a wildfire a few years ago Kurama had devoted his free time to regrowing it. One or two plant deaths was nothing, really – it only hurt him in that it was a loss of beauty – but that many at once had had him laid out for days, his mother worried over the freak sickness that plagued her usually healthy son. Either way, Hiei had never been there except to find him for missions once or twice, so he had no idea why the short demon was headed to such a place.

Dropping down from the treetops into a clearing halfway up the mountain, Hiei paused and turned to Kurama, tilting his head in a way that the fox had never seen him do. "Hiei…? Why are we here?"

The imiko gave an odd little half smile and walked over to the silk-clad redhead. "Fox, I just want you to know…I've always loved you."

Kurama's eyes widened and he took a breath, only to have it expelled brutally as his friend sunk a firey fist into his stomach. Sinking to the ground, he coughed once, twice, before blood came up and he was wrapped in darkness.

-x-

Coming to, the fox kept his eyes closed and his laboured breathing even. Why would Hiei have done that? He'd never given any hint of…well, actually, he probably _was_ a little insane. But who wasn't, in the Makai? Kurama never thought he'd do something like this, though. Was he planning to sell him? Kill him? Use him? Youko were, admittedly, rather rare, and his tail and hide would fetch a large fortune on the right side of the market. But the Hiei he knew had never been motivated by money…

Then again, the Hiei he knew wouldn't have betrayed his best friend, either.

Taking a slow breath, he attempted to get his bearings and discreetly shift to a more comfortable position, only to realize that his arms and legs were trapped by some type of cool metal that made his wrists and ankles ache severely. He clearly was bound or warded in some way and was not going to get out soon. Throwing caution to the winds, he opened his eyes and groaned at the sudden assault of orange light. What was Hiei using fire for?

Turning his head, he blinked to clear his vision and realized that the hiyoukai was crouched over with his back to Kurama, concentrating on enveloping something in his hand with flame. "Don't try pretending you're asleep, fox; I'm almost done here and I'll need you in a minute."

The redhead's lip curled in a distinctly vulpine way, showing his canines. "Bullshit! You know that I can't move and I know you obviously don't want me to. What have you done?"

Silence reigned over the crackle of flames for a minute before the black-haired figure put them out, confident that whatever he was doing was complete. "You'll see." Turning around so that the bound demon could see him fully, he held up an intricate piece of jewelry and grinned at Kurama's vicious snarl.

"Don't you dare!"

Shaking his head, the fire demon gave a coarse laugh. "Sorry, fox, but I've wanted to do this for _years_ – ever since I found out that jade was deadly to you youko. Yusuke always wondered, you know, why you never used those charms they kept getting you for good luck. 'Matched your eyes', they said. Ha! What would they say now, seeing you cower before it – brought down low by a simple piece of stone? The silver helps too, I'm told – apparently it can hurt any type of spirit, even a spirit fox like yourself."

The fox's form only tensed more, muscles straining at the thin silver chains wrapped around his limbs that matched the filigree on the piece Hiei was holding. "Goddammit, Hiei, just tell me what you want!"

The hiyoukai's lips curled to show a glinting fang as he stepped up to the fox, holding the white jade dragon above the prone form. "I want… _this._ " He dropped it and stepped back, relishing the sight of the beautiful stone falling through the air and Kurama's green eyes tracking the piece in fear and anger, only to roll back into his head as the jewelry made contact.

"Made it myself, too – and I'll have you know that it's damn hard to shape melting jade with fire. I hope you enjoy it to its capacity…" Eyes flickering with hidden flame, he watched ravenously as the fox's mouth opened in a soundless scream and his back arched up in pain and an attempt to dislodge the ornament. The shorter demon watched happily as the attempts failed – he'd warded the stone to attach itself to the first thing it made contact with. He'd also made a contingency plan or two in case the initial one failed – but maybe he should fire them up anyway?

Anything to cause the bastard fox more pain.

The fire demon grinned maliciously and snapped his fingers, bringing forth a spark. Kurama's eyes widened and he gasped with realization, wrists struggling weakly against the silvery cuffs. "No…please, Hiei! Please…" The raven only shook his head and blew the bit of black fire onto the closest tree – the first tree the fox had planted during the rebirth of his forest. It took only a second to go up in hungry flames that jumped from leaf to leaf and then to the next tree, consuming the entire stand in a less than a minute. Pupils contracting from the harsh shock of so much plant life massacred by the greedy fire, Kurama screamed in agony as the double shock set in and the preset jade wards surrounding him flared to life in equal amounts of pain and white-hot fire.

One last bit of energy was devoted to calling out weakly, but Hiei had already vanished, intent on leaving him to his fate. "Hiei…"

From a tree a mile off, the hiyoukai narrowed his eyes at the flames and the figure he could only just see. The fire wouldn't go near the fox, but the plant deaths and the jade would do the job well enough, especially in such amounts. Smirking, he vanished, knowing that his friend would soon be dead.

And by the time dawn emerged from the inky blackness, a splayed form breathed its last, screamed its last, and lived its last…and then the sun had risen on the dead.

-x-  
-x-  
-x-


	2. On Life

Cradling his newborn son in his arms, Kurama was assaulted with memories.

Distant memories of his past as a youko; his past before humanity.

He'd had family and friends then. He'd lived with all the others at Fushimi Inari, protecting, feeding, living, _feeling_. They lived to serve Inari-sama, and Inari-sama in turn was benevolent toward them, occasionally teaching them new tricks and games. Two foxes were chosen to be her messengers every couple hundred years, and for the first part of his life he was one of them. It was a happiness and fulfilled duty that was unrivalled for centuries…until he had kits of his own.

His mate was a fiery vixen full of sultry power and beauty, and had been his partner as a messenger. They'd know each other for long years and got along incredibly well, going off on pranking journeys that turned into thievery that turned into professional heists. Their kits were raised on the way; two vivacious litters of three and five that emulated their parents and were the source of great pride. They took their time growing up, Youko and his mate both parents and friends to the lively young.

After two centuries, though, they were all out of the den and had families and lives of their own, tolerant of their parents only to invite them over for reunions and to see them during the festivals at the main shrine. And after four hundred years, two of his grandkits were selected as messengers in the same way he and his mate were – and they were so very proud. They watched their family become extensive and fruitful, a long line branching out like so many trees Youko himself had grown, until the only tales the descendants heard of the ancestors were legends of legends of the king and queen of thieves. Appearances were rare, recognition even less.

And then Youko was killed, and Kurama took his place.

The past was coming full circle, now, and the sun had set on the old life to rise on the new. Time immemorial was conspiring to repeat itself, but it was all he could do not to let the tears of happiness fall down his cheeks to land on his son.

The cycle would only repeat itself, he knew, for he had learned that what he took for benevolent from Inari-sama was actually a harsh favoritism that pushed him into immortality for her own sake – because she could not bear to exist alone. She went through the same cycle he did, and for that, he did not begrudge her a thing.

And for now, he had his own children, once again, to love and raise, until Father Tempus decided to move once again.

-x-

-x-

-x-


	3. On Egress

"Please don't go, Kurama."

He was at his wits' end. Something had happened to make his best friend behave this way, but he had no idea what it was and the redhead refused to tell him. "If you insist on leaving us, at least tell me why!"

The fox shook his head insistently. "No, Yusuke. I have to leave. This world…It's too much." Turning to shoulder his bag, he moved across the kitchen and dumped the contents into the trash. "I have to return to my old home, my old life, and my only world."

Yusuke shot up out of his seat, indignant. "Your _only_ world? What happened to us? Your friends? Your mother? I thought you were _happy_ here! You said that you'd go back to the Makai after everybody was dead and there was nothing left – eighty, ninety years max! Not _five_! Your mom will freak and everybody will miss you!"

"Yusuke, I appreciate the sentiment, but Minamino Shiori is not my mother. The only real friends I have can come to the Makai to visit, and I really don't give a damn for anyone else who will miss _me_ here because _I_ miss my real life and my old relationships. You didn't even give a thought to whether I had people I loved before I 'died', did you? Well, I'll settle that. I have a brother and a mate - both of whom initially thought I was dead and were devastated – and have been waiting for twenty-one years for my return. I happen to have both a profession and a life I'd like to get back to, human world be damned. Now, are you going to let me leave quietly or are you planning to kick up a fuss with Koenma and anyone else you can think of? I'd rather us stay friends, Yusuke; our time together _has_ been enjoyable."

The detective stood stock-still, shocked by this abject turnaround. Though, he supposed, it was his fault he didn't listen to Hiei about the fox being more cutthroat and merciless than the hiyoukai could ever be. Some of that chunk of his personality was showing through right now, the part that they all had thought had been buried upon Shiori's sacrifice. "But what about the Forlorn Hope? You were willing to die for her then; what's happened recently that has changed your mind? If you tell me, I can help and you won't have to leave," he reasoned. "And then this whole mess can be avoided."

The redhead narrowed green eyes at him and then – in the time it took Yusuke to blink – vanished from sight, bag, seeds, and all.

A growl, and then the kitchen was empty as the Mazoku gave pursuit.

"Kurama! _Dammit_ , you crazy vulpine! Get back here and explain! I won't let you leave without an explanation!"

Another minute of chase gained him nothing; the red blur was getting farther and farther away. " _Kurama!_ "

A silver blur suddenly slammed into him, throwing him against a wall and pinning him there. He shook his head quickly to clear it and looked up, pissed and ready to go, only to see a curtain of climmering strands with a set of furry ears mounted on top – and a pair of acid-gold eyes narrowed dangerously.

"I am leaving, and you are not following. I am a thief, if you will so _kindly_ remember, and I will not hesitate to steal whatever you hold dear if you disobey. And Keiko seemed oh so happy after you proposed last night…"

Yusuke lunged, just barely missing the fluttering edges of the white tunic the demon favored.

"God damn you, bastard!"

But the youko was already gone.

-x-x-

-x-


	4. On Taboo

A series of thumps was all that announced Yusuke's arrival, Kuwabara's heavier gait only seconds behind. "Kurama! Hiei! Man, I haven't seen you guys in forever! How ya been?"

The redhead ignored the slam of the shoji against the wall and continued quietly sipping his tea; the jaganshi simply disappeared, the pillow he'd been sitting on rustling from the sudden displacement. Eyes flicking toward the vacated spot, Kurama sighed and placed his teacup back on the table, wrapping his hands securely around its warmth. "It _has_ been quite a while, Yusuke, but that is no excuse to be rushing around the temple when there are people still asleep. Please, sit down. You too, Kuwabara."

Giving a grunt, the toushin tramped around the low table and plopped himself down on the still-warm cushion that Hiei had left. "So, I heard you're not going to college? Kuwabara's been ragging on me about that since forever, something about wasting genius, not that I would know anything about school smarts."

The big student sat down next to Kurama and groaned. "Urameshi, just because you're an idiot doesn't mean the rest of us have to be." Ignoring a cheeky 'yeah, that's why I keep you guys around', he leaned onto the table and turned to face the redhead. "So why? You'd get into the top school in Japan, no problem. And…no offense, why is your hair braided?"

Kurama glanced up from his tea into his friend's questioning face. "Well, there's not really a point. It's not as if my ultimate goal is to get a good job and accumulate wealth and recognition – well, I suppose it is, but I've long since achieved that, and anyway, it's nothing that could be regarded as prominent in ningenkai. I have a perfectly available job at Hatanaka-san's company and am paid a decent salary… There's not really a reason for me shoot for the stars in this life. And to answer your second question, it's because Yukina recently learned how to french-braid and wanted a test subject. Since I happen to have no small amount of lustrous hair, I was, naturally, her first choice. Genkai's hair is rather frayed. Too many split ends for demon taste."

Yusuke snorted. "It's times like these when your vanity shows through, man. Seriously, _lustrous_? I bet you taught her how to do it, too."

The fox just smiled and took another sip of his tea.

The punk shook his head and flopped on the table, glaring at the light in his eyes. "Why are we here at six in the morning, anyway? You're such a retard, Kuwabara."

Watching the college hopeful fume silently, Kurama spoke up in hopes of placation. "Yukina will be up soon, if you'd like some breakfast. Of course, if you find that you absolutely can't wait, I could always make some. Fresh Makai shimaneki-sou makes a wonderful breakfast salad if served with sunny-side-up sukoki eggs…" he mused. "And if I kept a careful enough eye on them, I might be able to mostly negate their poisonous side effects."

Yusuke blanched. "Nah, nah, I'll be fine with whatever Yukina scrounges up."

"Of course you will, dumbass! My Yukina always cooks only the best of delicacies!"

The mazoku batted the protruding pompadour out of his face and planted a foot in his friend's stomach, sending him through the open door and into the rock garden outside. "Oh, hey, Yukina. What's for breakfast?"

The snow apparition leaned around the corner with a smile on her face. "Does rice and miso sound good? If not, I think Genkai helped herself to some of the kumoriyoukai eggs in the forest. They're a delicacy in the demon world, but I don't know if bat is considered palatable here…?"

Kurama interrupted his fellow's gagging and nodded. "Rice and miso sounds wonderful, and if it's not too much trouble can you kizo an egg for me? I haven't had one in a while. I don't think they'll want any, though." He gestured to the two guests. Nodding, Yukina left towards the kitchen, humming an old folk song.

Ignoring his rival clambering back up onto the porch, Yusuke leaned forward and sniffed. "You know, fox-boy, I wasn't too sure of it before since my youki-sensing skills aren't exactly the shit and all, but you smell like Hiei. Did you guys spar without me this morning?"

Raising an eyebrow, Kurama sipped his tea again with an amused smile on his face. "Only if you consider youki transferral to be fighting."

"Youki whaaaat?"

The demon sighed. _Kids these days_. "Demons can transfer power…re-charge each other, for lack of a better word that you'd understand."

Urameshi blinked. "Sooo…. If I fight you I can get more energy? Why haven't we done this sooner? I'm ready to go any time!" He pounded a fist into the other and grinned. "Well?"

The fox gave a rare eye-roll. "It isn't _fighting_ , Yusuke, it's exchanging power through intercourse. Sex. The hanky-panky? Doing the dirty? Making sweet lo-"

"Heyheyhey!" The punk jumped to his feet, brandishing angrily. Kuwabara looked like he'd have done the same, had he been coherent. "Are you telling me that you two are, well, _together?_ 'Cause that's just, I don't know, weird!"

"No, Yusuke. There's no love involved in what we do. It's…Ugh. It's a demon thing. Satisfied?"

"Demons are weird."

Kurama snorted. "You know, that's exactly what we say about humans. You have such odd taboos-"

Kuwabara regained sensibilities and stood up, hands thrust out. "Okay, guys, I really don't want to hear _anything else_ that I might consider TMI, so just shut up. Now."

Yusuke smiled. "But-"

" _Now_."

-x-x-

-x-


	5. On Spirits

Clasping his clawed hands together, he brought them to his chest and pressed them to his heart. A calming warmth spread from his toes to the tips of his furred ears and he smiled, relaxing back onto the rough bark of the tree. This was why he loved spending time at Genkai's temple; anywhere else in mainland Japan was bustling and noisy. He would've liked to have time to himself at Fushimi Inari or Kuramazan, but times had changed and now the public were allowed anywhere.

Tilting his head up to look at the sky, he watched the clouds pass overhead and let himself slip into his memories...

_"I just don't get it, mother. Why can't they understand?" A young Youko looked up at his dam and whined, bristling uncomfortably when one of his littermates rolled against him in the midst of play._

_His mother shook her head and gave his muzzle a wet lick. "Youko, my sweet kit, not everybody is the same as us. We are spirit foxes, you know that. You never questioned why your crow friend couldn't come into the temple?"_

_The silvery kit humphed. "His name is Kuronue, mother! And I never asked. He just doesn't like it here, I guess." Why else would his best friend not want to venture up to where the rest of his family was at play?_

_Minai shook flicked her ears, annoyed with the short-sightedness of her young offspring. "Come, Youko, let's take a walk away from everybody else and I'll explain to you what it means to be one of us." Gesturing with her paw, she informed her white-furred mate of their leave and then hurried her kit along until they were a little ways up the mountain. "Your crow - Kuronue, excuse me - is not a spirit crow, because they do not exist. He is a demon, a crow youkai. Their young are born differently than ours are, and I believe that it where you two have been having your differences." She paused, grasping her kit's scruff gently in her jaws to circumvent a rather high log. Plopping him down on the trunk, she continued, settling herself in a sunny patch of dark wood. "They must go through a rather messy process to birth young, because they have physical aspects of their soul forms from conception to death. Even after, actually," she remarked to herself, "and apparently it's rather disgusting. That's not to say that we are any better than they are, however; we are simply different, and different isn't as bad as it seems."_

_"Because I'm friends with a...youkai?"_

_"Not because, Youko. It is good that you have befriended him, and I hope to see that bond last centuries. Oh, don't give me that look. You'll be far older than I someday, I just know it." She smirked. "That will be your punishment for calling me old earlier. Me, old... Hah, I'm only four hundred!"_

_Her kit gave her a dirty look._

_"Oh, well, I'll go on. You need to learn all of this anyway... Where was I?"_

_Youko sighed. "At the part where they have physical bodies the whole time."_

_"Ah, yes. So, as I'm sure you've already figured out, their souls are based in physical bodies and ours are based in...?"_

_"Our spirits...wait, aren't they the same thing?"_

_"Pretty much. Basically, they have an extra attachment. We take physical forms as humanoids, but we are born and die as spirits. That's why when your grandsire's body was killed, he could still escape and come back to the temple. His physical aspect simply disintegrated."_

_"That makes sense, I guess. So if real demons were killed in their physical bodies, they would die? Just like that?"_

_His mother nodded. "And for birth, it's similar -I'll use fox demons as an example. At conception, parents unite some of their physical essences to create a kit in the vixen that grows inside something called...well, I think it's called a 'womb'. I could be wrong; it's not like I have one. Either way, the kit grows and grows for about three months and makes the mother look terribly fat. It's disgusting." Minai flicker her ears back irritably. "Thank Inari I didn't have to go through that."_

_"Then what did you have to do, mother?"_

_She shrugged. "Hold onto your whiskers, I'm getting there. So at the end of their pregnacies, the kit has to come out and it's abhorrently bloody and gross. The end. Never mate a demon unless you're the one carrying the kit, Youko."_

_Her offspring reared back with a scared look on his face. "Me? What?"_

_"We don't have to go through all that. Since we're spirits, instead of uniting physical essences we need only fuse a part of our power, our youki, together, and with enough intent we can create a litter. That's how you were conceived. Our pregnancies last about eleven months, as is proper, and your beautiful little souls grow all big and glossy under our care."_

_Youko frowned. "But where are we kept while we grow? And how do we get born?"_

_His mother sneezed and stretched, turning onto her back and fanning her three tails out to the side. "Ah, but that's the best part, sweetheart. We keep you in our hearts. When you little brats decide it's time to be born, we concentrate all our energy and emotions onto your souls and you slowly come into being. When the time came for me, you four just plopped right out into existence in front of me and immediately started wining for food! I had to push all my energy into you squallers for a straight week! If I was a youkai I'd have had to nurse you, but since you're practically pure energy, emotion does just fine. You all were so sweet..."_

_Her kit's tail swished back and forth from his place and he shifted. "And...what about me? You said that I could kit?"_

_"Oh, not right now. Your soul's not mature enough. But once you are old enough and take a mate, it doesn't matter what gender you are. As long as they share a bit of power and you fuse it to your own, you'll be able to have your own litter. We're not really sticklers for gender, you know. For a youko, beauty is all that matters!" She snickered gaily. "Really, though, if you mate another one of our own kind, it's fairly customary for the vixen to bear. Fairly."_

_Youko pursed his mouth and nodded. "But how do you...fuse power?"_

_Minai blinked. "That's for another time, dear. When you're older."_

_"But-"_

Youko chuckled. Thinking back on his youth always made him smile. And to think, his dam had been right about him living far longer than her - and about Kuronue too, come to think of it. He and the crow had been solid friends and partners for almost eight hundred years until the dark youkai had been killed, and that had been over six hundred years ago.  
Over time, he'd come to accept the loss and move on, but it still stung. His mate had finally wormed the truth out of him the other day, annoyed to hear of yet another secret being kept. _"Oh, Hiei,"_ he'd told the hiyoukai, _"You'll live. And anyway, surprises like these are what make life fun. Just imagine if I'd told you about my ability to have children a little earlier! it would've been so boring that way..."_ Hiei, naturally, had not been amused, but it was hard to go against the youko when he was at his peak. And he'd always wanted a child.

Pressing his hands closer to the warmth that was his newly-conceived kits, he shook his head. "I wonder what he'll say when I let it slip that foxes only have litters...?"

-x-x-

-x-


	6. On Madness

The path to paradise is long, but the path of life is far more trying.

I've trudged along in this deadened body for two decades, and I'm about to lose it. Yusuke doesn't understand, because Yusuke is Yusuke and he will never be able to understand running away or giving up. Hiei doesn't get it because he doesn't let anything affect him; he lives by his own laws just like Koenma creates them. Genkai thinks she understands, but she has no idea. Her maturity pales to mine in every sense of the word. Mukuro never wanted to understand, but I only knew her in passing so it never really mattered. Raizen was a young demon foolishly concerned with life, only to waste it all in a brash action.

Yomi has been my anchor. My lifeline. My _pesdje alcha,_ as an old second level dialect proclaims, and we are forever intertwined.

Not in the way you think, of course. He was the only one that I never became physically involved with, and for what reason? None at all. With Yomi I rely on instinct, and only with Yomi instinct reveals the way. I do not regret anything, for he never needed his eyes but was too blind to see why. Our mutual feeling – love, hate, fury, regret, sorrow, humor, and everything in between – keeps me on my toes, whether they be clawed or blunt, and he is what keeps me alive.

Two thousand years of life and I never learned to rely on anything else. I have been forced into this body and made to stay here by my emotions, pesky little things. But Yomi strips them away and gives me instinct, adrenaline, lies and games of life and death and love and hate. The youko inside of me tears and chafes at the ignorant masses I surround myself with and the mind above sees it logical, but the soul cleaves both in two and goes to rejoin my one and only.

I am a fox, and we are vicious. We are Inari's messengers and her wrath, her playful spirit and her deceitful will. We provide, we take away, we game and we laugh, and everything that I have forgotten in this human shell is given to me by Him.

Him. Yomi. Once a second, now a first, always a necessity. Even when teaching him a lesson I feel the connection, and he has learned to always be Surprise to my Wickedness and Moral Depravity. Yusuke jokes that between Hiei and myself, I am far more dangerous due to – which is very much true, but for better reasons than – the fact that Hiei acts like he has no morals but does have an ingrained sense of honor, whereas I act like I have scruples and inhibitions but have none whatsoever to speak of. It is the silent ones that are the most dangerous, you see, and the blind that have nothing to lose.

Yomi's blindness was a strategic move planned out by my mind and enacted by my youko, but my soul condoned it for the reason that otherwise he would not be here today.

He is here for me, and I am here for him, and when this human shell is shed and all dies, he will be waiting still to be yet my Surprise to the Wickedness and Moral Depravity that I am if ever he could want it.

I miss thievery, I miss my name being feared to the countless levels of Makai, I miss my golden days of gilded dens and gardens of gold. I miss being the current fear, the evil of the day that no merchant or greedy aristocrat was safe from. I miss being the being that forced the powerful ones to cower, to prostrate themselves before my orgy of treasure-laden dens and plead, plead for their lives and gold and families. I miss sparing none of them.

Yomi came to me like that, but singing a different tune. A tune of plans and lies and full-hearted _fun_ , something I craved no matter where or when I was.

I neglected Inari to play with him, to satisfy my fun of humoring him, and it was fate that persuaded me to lie and deceive my way into an honest-to-Inari truth.

I told him I loved him.

And then I blinded him.

He hated me in the same manner that I love-hated him, and over the centuries that has only proceeded to even out more.

Yusuke would never understand my constriction.

Hiei cannot fathom hating someone only to love them.

Genkai is a fetus by my standards and an old bag by hers, and doesn't understand the difference.

Mukuro I admire for transcending her limits but abhor for not going further.

Raizen died lonely and in his prime and I fear I will emulate him but I cannot and will not and want not and-

_Yomi._

_-x-_


	7. On Debt

After meeting Yomi for the first time in a millennium, the most shocking thing about him was not his lack of sight, but in fact his height.

He towered over my red-haired form like a cat over a mouse. Such a drastic change from my memory of him caused me to step back and give my head a mental shake. I had – rather foolishly, I suppose – somehow expected to be looking down into his eyes, as before. But I found myself having to glance almost a foot and a half above my current eye level to be met with closed lids. This shoved me from my mental position in the past right into the present, where I was now the lesser being and the subordinate. For a moment, I even found myself regretting choosing to spend so long in the human world. My stagnation had colored my world an ashy grey of death, and I had sorely needed to revisit the colorful world of the immortality that I had left behind.

Ironically, Yomi himself was now caught in a colorless haze of only four senses – senses that, I admit to myself at night, I could have had if only I had forsaken my human mother sooner. I had one chance before the death of this form, one chance that a moment of emotion had caused me to ignore. Now I had to wait the eight or nine decades it would take for this body to die naturally before my soul could escape and reform my original body.

"Yomi…" I hissed. "What is the meaning of this?"

He smirked, and I quickly stifled the overpowering need to wipe the smugness from his countenance. Instead, I regressed my rose whip as he spoke. "I wasn't sure if it was you, Kurama, my old friend. Your energy feels so different from how I last remember. Rather diminished."

I frowned. "Much has changed, Yomi, not the last of which is our relationship. I don't remember parting on good terms, so why the message after so long?"

Now it was the goat's turn to frown, his brows creasing. "Kurama, can we not put our issues aside until it comes time to confront them? My intention today was to have you observe a war meeting and to see what you contribute. Come, let us go."

I scoffed, red hair swirling as I shook my head. "I never claimed to understand you, but now I have not a clue of your intentions. You've spent a thousand years gaining power in pursuit of what I was, and now you have called me here to witness what you now are. But I am also far from the Youko you remember. I am only human. You cannot realize how much has changed; comprehending the enormity of my transformation is unavailable to you without the use of your eyes. I am silver-haired and golden-eyed no longer; my trademark white clothing and silent movement has vanished. I am, as you said, diminished.

"So what the hell could you want from me?"

"Oh, my friend, you are too humble. Your mind has not languished, and it never will. Now please. Would you like to run with me? Gandara is a good fifty miles away, and we must get there before nightfall if we are to attend the meeting." He considered for a moment, then ventured, "Unless you find yourself unable to traverse such a distance?"

I shifted uncomfortably. "Again, Yomi, I am mostly human…and most humans cannot walk fifty miles in a day, let alone run it in two hours. I suppose I shall just have to miss this meeting of yours; my apologies. You'll just have to leave me to my own devices until I arrive tomorrow."

The taller demon let out a laugh and strode forward. "Ah, my fox friend, you always were a wonderful conversationalist. But no fear, I will simply carry you along with me and we will be there in no time!"

I flinched away as he reached for me. "Yomi, really, I don't mind walking, I'm really not quite ready to –" I cut off in a strangled squeak as his arms encircled me and he lifted my tense form up, pausing for a second midway to readjust. I suspect he, like me, wasn't ready to be confronted with the change in size; I was lighter and smaller than he'd ever felt. We'd traveled in this fashion once before – which was probably why he did not pause in suggesting such an embarrassing position – a very long time ago when I had been injured as a result of his foolish actions. Needless to say, the situation was vastly removed, and the slight annoyance I had felt then was exponentially increased now. I grunted discontentedly and hefted my dangling pack onto my chest, taking a second to tuck the errant foxtail in. My brother had given me the charm as a parting summer souvenir, and I had packed it away to give my belongings some semblance of humanity, as ironic as that seemed.

Yomi began running, the trees becoming a blur all around him. I smiled in spite of myself, for this was a sensation I had missed, and one that I relished. The wind rushing past my face, lifting my hair up, rippling past my clothes to mingle with Yomi's own – no, that ruined it. Better not to think about the one whose arms supported me, the one whom I owed a heavy debt.

I owed him, because I'd taken away his sight –I found out later that he had referred to it as his light.

Light colors the world, and the biggest difference between us was the height that cast a shadow over all that I saw. He had the view to life with no eyes to see it, and I had only the world surrounded by shadow, by the death that walked the streets waiting to claim my name.

But for now, it was all I could do not to scream, to not be taken over by the ghosts and regrets of the past.

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